Newton single handedly brought about a new era in our understanding of the physical world, through his famous equation F = ma and the law of gravity. These laws successfully predict the behavior of all phenomena from the microscopic world to the astronomical world! Ofcourse, Einstien changed things once again but that was only after about 4 centuries. Solving Irodov dramatically helped me understand the power, elegance, simplicity and beauty of Physics. Hopefully you will enjoy the journey too.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Irodov Problem 1.230

This question asks exactly the opposite of problem 1.229. There is a satellite in a circular orbit and now it needs to be imparted some minimal additional velocity to escape. When the satellite is imparted the minimum required velocity to escape its total energy will be 0 and get into a parabolic orbit. So the additional velocity is simply,